The present invention relates to a shop support stand for supporting a workpiece, such as a piece of wood, as it overhangs and moves relative to a piece of work equipment, such as a tablesaw, radial arm saw, planer, etc., that is performing a work operation on the workpiece.
A piece of work equipment, such as a table saw, milling machine, planer, etc., is often used to perform work operations on unwieldy workpieces that are of a dimension larger than any support table or structure that is integral with the work equipment. Hence a portion of the workpiece overhangs the work equipment, and this portion can change as the workpiece is moved toward or away from the work equipment as the work operation progresses. It is often advantageous to additionally support the workpiece as it moves toward or away from a piece of work equipment, as the overhanging portion of the workpiece can exert considerable leverage and interfere with the work operation, such as by causing a saw to cut less accurately, or by causing the workpiece to bind against the saw, etc.
Known in the art are cylindrical and roller ball type shop support stands for supporting workpieces. These support stands are typically located a selected distance away from the work equipment so as to receive and support the overhanging portion of the workpiece. These known shop support stands have drawbacks.
For example, cylindrical rollers can run the workpiece off to one side if the centerline of the cylinder is not exactly perpendicular to the direction of movement of the workpiece. This can be a particular problem when the support stand is separate from the work equipment, such that the perpendicularity of the cylinder axis cannot by constantly assured via the fixed mounting the cylinder to the piece of work equipment. Maintaining perpendicularity can be even more of the problem due to the side bumping of the roller by the workpiece.
Ball rollers also have disadvantages. For example, a narrow workpiece can fall between the balls, rendering the ball roller stand virtually worthless for supporting the workpiece.
In addition, often the weight of the portion of the workpiece that overhangs the work equipment causes an end of the workpiece to drop. Cylindrical and ball roller support stands can deal with very little drop before the workpiece, as it moves away from the work equipment, simply hits the stand instead of riding up over the ball rollers or the cylindrical roller, and tends to knock the stand over. For example, a typical cylinder of a cylinder roller stand has a 2xe2x80x3 diameter, such that the workpiece can only drop 1xe2x80x3 between the work equipment and the stand before it hits the center of the cylinder and tends to push the stand rather than roll over the roller. Ball rollers typically allow even less drop. Often the stand must be properly positioned relative to the work equipment each time before a new type of workpiece is worked on to ensure that the workpiece does not drop too much before reaching the stand. Often, if the drop is to be large, for instance when the workpiece is long and flexible and is to be sawn along its length, the stand must be moved fairly close to the work equipment, and a second stand used to support and portion of the workpiece that over hangs the first stand. A third stand can even be required.
Shop support stands that combine a sloped portion having a single slope and cylindrical or ball rollers are also known. While these stands can accommodate a larger drop than the cylindrical roller or ball rollers alone, they typically retain one or more of the aforementioned other disadvantages of ball and cylindrical rollers, Furthermore, the sloped portion, having a single slope, is limited in the amount of drop that can be accommodated without the stand becoming fairly large. Also, the workpiece contacts the top of the sloped portion essentially along a line, which can lead to excessive pressure and hence wear on the sloped portion of any low friction coating applied thereto, as well as increased resistance to the movement of the workpiece.
Finally, known shop stands can include a considerable number of parts and can be unduly expensive and complicated.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to address one or more of the foregoing drawbacks of the prior art.
According to the invention, there is provided a shop support stand for slidingly supporting a generally horizontally moving workpiece, such a length of wood, at a preselected height as a work operation, such as sawing, routing, milling or planing, is performed on the workpiece. The shop support stand can receive a moving dropped end of the workpiece and ramp the dropped end to the preselected height. The shop support stand includes a base and a ramp having a convex surface. The ramp mounts with the base, and the convex surface includes an upper portion for slidingly supporting the workpiece at the preselected height and a lower portion for slidingly ramping the dropped end of the workpiece to the upper portion.